I am a bowel cancer survivor | STFO π
|
Trigger warning: cancer, surgery. β β I honestly do not know how to start this email, so I guess I'm just going to say it: I am a bowel cancer survivor. No, it's not April Fool's. Yes, it's very real. You know me, I'm a pretty transparent guy, so I was ready to tell you as soon as I got diagnosed back in October of last year (so 6 months ago). But I wanted to wait until I kicked my cancer's a** to share this with everyone. After some changes in my bowel movements and some sharp stomach pain that would come and go, I went to see my GP. She ruled out the usual suspects (hemorrhoids) and sent me to get a colonoscopy: That was mid-October. Long story short, I was sedated, but not enough to be asleep. Within two minutes, I saw this massive, bleeding blob on the screen. I knew what it was. Everyone in the room knew what it was. A tumor. A cancerous f*cking tumor. The gastroenterologist looked at me and said, "It's very treatable. It's very treatable." After the procedure, they asked my wife to come in. We met with the doctor once again. He said, "We're going to do a biopsy, but I'm so sure it's cancer that if it comes back negative, I will order a new biopsy." The next 24 hours felt... blurry. All I could think about was my daughter. Is she going to grow up without a dad? That's all I could think about. I didn't care about myself or my situation. I could only think of my daughter (and my wife) who would have to deal with all this mess without me. I just couldn't let that happen. So the fight began. I went for a CT scan a couple of days after to check exactly where my tumor was, and how big it was (it was 4cm long). Then, I went on to meet the medical team that would look after me.
The good news? The tumor was located in the sigmoid colon, just above the rectum, which made it operable. The bad news? I'd need keyhole surgery, like asap. They'd cut my colon to remove the tumor and the associated lymph nodes. At that stage, we didn't know whether I'd need an ostomy bag after the procedure. We also didn't know whether the cancer had spread. A couple of days after my 36th birthday, I went in for my colon resection surgery, which would last 4 hours. The surgery went really well. The surgeon went to see afterwards with some good news. The cancer hadn't spread to the 52 (!) nearby lymph nodes. F*ck yeah. I was out four days later. And I cannot overstate how AMAZING and SUPPORTIVE my medical team has been. They made this journey so, so, so much easier. Essentially, the surgery removed my cancer. This is why the gastroenterologist kept repeating that this type of cancer was "very treatable." Funnily enough, I didn't have those "Hollywood moments" where the diagnosis made me reconsider my life choices. Quite the opposite, in fact. All I wanted to do was to launch this motherf*cking book (which we did a week after I got out). And all I wanted was to be with my family. Back to the present day: I'm following a course of adjuvant chemotherapy to be sure to be sure that the cancer is gone and that there's no lingering malignant cells. All I need to take is 5 tablets in the morning, and 5 tablets at night. I have minimal side effects (mainly fatigue), which means I'm living a normal life. I haven't changed anything about my routine. Anyway, this is a long email, but I wanted to update you about this rather important thing that happened to me.
PS: Believe it or not, there's a connection between my cancer and marketing. I remember seeing this poster a few times in my local pharmacy. I think I also saw a couple of TV ads on the same topic. There was something in the back of my mind that made me take my symptoms seriously.
I guess you could say that marketing has saved my life. Thank you for reading. 𧑠|
